Duty
by RoboTitaness
Summary: He says it's to protect his brothers, and he isn't lying. But he's also protecting himself.


**This one is all intelligentgravity's fault and her one-shot, Shoot First, Always Ask Questions. Do yourself a favor and go read that coz it's absolutely spectacular and then go read her other things.**

 **I hope this piece does that her work justice. It seems that I've been neglecting the younger boys, so look for pieces to come.**

 **Enjoy!**

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So they don't have to.

The phrase echoed through his mind, bouncing and rebounding and growing louder as every mission passes.

So they don't have to.

It's not that they were weak, he defended as he dug through his room for the polisher. Well, John could use some time in the gym in the presence of gravity, but a childhood with him would never let Gordon call John weak. And Virgil sure as hell wasn't weak.

Alan was his little brother, and it was a big brother's prerogative to call the younger one weak, so Gordon reckoned that was fine.

Even if he'd get beat up by any of the three for even thinking of them as weak.

But the point stands. None of them were weak. They were International Rescue. Tracy's. Their jobs weren't for the weak.

No, it wasn't their strength that he doubted. At least not their physical one.

By now, he had found his polisher and had settled at his desk, apparatus sitting innocently on the surface in front of him.

It wasn't their emotional states either. There'd been missions gone wrong, times John had been called too late. Disasters and close calls and missed calls. Mistakes and failures. None of the brothers, even little Alan, were sheltered any longer. Hadn't been. Since their mother's death.

His fingers unassembled the tool with deft movements.

So, no. Not strength at all really. Something else. Scott and he had never really discussed it. The taboo topic. The shadow, darkening their every day.

So they don't have to.

The polisher was open and a cloth dipped in.

Not strength. Definitely not resolve. To save people, all the brothers will do anything. It was a given, one Alan would claim never had to be said. A fact - John was overly fond of those. A truth - Virgil could say it and no one would think it cheesy. People were Good.

Their job was saving people. Because people were Worthy.

At least, Virgil would say that. John would stay quiet, but he would shift slightly, subtly showing his support for his closest brother. And then when the arguments really started, he'd add in his own two cents, balancing out the four brothers.

Technology is created to help. To aid people.

A John thing to say and Virgil would nod vehemently, continuing the argument from those simple statements.

Neither of them would ever win, the eldest and youngest of the four barely needing to make their own statements because when the mission called for it, there wouldn't be any discussion as to what the two would do. Virgil will watch them go, but then grumble and debate the ethics. John will try to examine the necessity, but remain in silent disapproval and worry.

Neither of them will ever hold it against the other two. Alan will stay in ignorance. But that didn't stop the cycle.

That didn't stop the incomprehension.

Because at the end, that was what it was. Neither understood what Gordon and Scott had to do and neither of them will. Because Gordon and Scott were too good, too well-trained, at their job.

So they wouldn't have to.

Even as Virgil blusters and John analyses, Gordon and Scott will hide and defuse and counter. No details would be explained, no reports would have the chance to even chance the middle two's eyes. The two would stay in incomprehension and Gordon and Scott would live in blood and then they'll scrub it all off in bathrooms before going back to rehash arguments and, finally, find peace again when they meet their siblings' confused, innocent gazes.

The cycle didn't stop.

Gordon reassembled his gun, cocking it, and aiming it at a target over his bed.

So they didn't have to.

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